Congress is playing catch-up in virtual space. From creating a buzz around Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s rallies to a Congress leader’s book launch to wishing party seniors on their birthdays, the so-far nascent social media cell of the Grand Old Party has suddenly come alive, leading the battle in election-bound states.

As elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh near, the agenda is being set by the social media unit. Be it Twitter hashtag #AintNoCinderellaafter Chandigarh-based DJ Varnika Kundu incident or the more recent “Vikas Gando Thayo Che” (Development has gone crazy) in Gujarat, the party has finally arrived in social media space. After an organisational rejig in May, the unit was brought under actor-turned-politician Divya Spandana Ramya.

From a small unit, the cell has a proper organisation now with four people made in-charge of states. These work closely with state units. Any activity in the states — rallies, specific governance issues or crime against women or negligence — are flagged by state units to these in-charges. The social media unit then steps in with creative ideas and campaigns within the day to step up the offensive. “It is a tight unit. I cannot give you exact numbers but it is a medium-sized cell,” Spandana told ET. “We take up all people-centric issues and create a buzz around them.” There are data analysts, translators, technology experts, researchers and even people with advertising background in the team.

“We are not very big. But we have a dedicated set of volunteers who make our initiatives a success.” The cell’s biggest success — “Vikas Gando Thayo Che” campaign is one such example, she said. The catchline really came on an internal Whatsapp group from a student volunteer. “We were posting creatives on bullet trains on the group when the volunteer remarked ‘Vikas Gando Thayo Che’. We didn’t know what it meant till it was translated by our in-house Gujarati translator who said it meant Vikas has gone crazy. It had gone viral within minutes,” said Spandana.

Ahead of Gandhi’s Himachal Pradesh rally on Saturday, the social media cell’s foot soldiers went to the state to do a pre-event recce and then think of themes to flag. Apart from tweeting his speech, creatives were churned out on the achievements of Virbhadra Singh government. Spandana says, “We need to tackle anti-incumbency through our initiatives. So we do acknowledge what has been done and what we can do better. Our campaigns would centre around that.”

The biggest achievements of the cell are increasing the following of Gandhi on Twitter and getting all Congress state and central leaders on social media. However, Spandana doesn’t take any credit for it. “Whatever following has increased is only because of him and his views,” she said. At present, the emphasis is on state unit functionaries to be online.